Today we had yet another appointment at Stanmore with Marjorie.
It’s the on-going problem with the pain in her right foot.

It’s always tricky knowing what time to set off for Stanmore.
As it’s just off Junction 5 of the M1 and we never know what the traffic is going to be like, we left home 2 hours before her appointment time.
As Sods law would have it, we arrived just over 1 hour early but the clinic was running 1 hour late!!

Anyway, because her problem looks to be ongoing with no quick fix we were getting a bit worried because she is taking her options next year and a couple of her career choices are going to be non starters if she can’t get this sorted.
The Orthopaedic surgeon she was seeing had noticed some deterioration on our last visit so he referred her to one of their foot and ankle specialists.

We had a good chat and he took a good look at Marjorie and listened to our concerns and decided that before he can proceed he needs to get an up to date MRI.
The last one she had was in January 2012 and as there had been deterioration in her x-rays at her last visit a couple of months ago he wanted a fresh look.

We thought Marjorie had ‘Freiberg’s’ disease but apparently we ‘technically’ shouldn’t call it that because the man who first documented the disease and gave it it’s name only recorded it in the second metatarsal of patients.
Marjorie has a particularly rare case in her third metatarsal. She actually has a form of osteochondrosis that presents in exactly the same way as Freiberg’s. It is Freiberg’s but isn’t at the same time.

Confused?

Anyway, looking through all her x-rays since this started it is quite clear that the cartiledge in the joint has disintegrated and the bone head has flattened leaving a floating fragment.
The MRI will give the specialist a better view of what’s going on now and he will then decide if he needs to remove the fragment.
There is another procedure he also mentioned where he can take a piece of tendon from elsewhere in the body and create a little pad that he can put in the joint space to act like a cushion just like the missing cartiledge.
Until we get this MRI done though we just don’t know where we will be going next but at least we know there are some treatments that can be considered.

So, that’s been our day today.
Time to relax a bit.
Bring on Candy Crush!!